PVK Small Learning CommunityEnd-of-Program Overview

General Objectives
1. I am aware of the significant role of mass media, popular culture and digital media in the lives of my students.
2. I can use instructional strategies that make use of mass media, popular culture and digital technology to support student learning in the areas of language arts, science, social studies, health education, and the fine and performing arts.
3. I have increased my confidence in using a variety of media and digital technology tools with my students in ways that connect to my existing curriculum at RBCS.
4. I can use online sharing tools with my students to promote expression and communication between home and school.
5. I have developed, implemented and assessed a project that activates students’ digital and media literacy competencies


Session 1: What is Media Literacy?
Reflect on my knowledge, beliefs and feelings about mass media, popular culture and digital technology and share ideas with a colleague
Work collaboratively to select images that help express different ideas and compose writing that captures my attitudes and feelings about media texts.
Sequence and organize ideas in a PowerPoint presentation to convey meaning to a reader/viewer.

Session 2: Media Literacy Concepts and Visual Storytelling

Understand and apply MLE process (access, analyze, compose, reflect) and concepts (author, purpose, audience).
Recognize and use the codes and conventions of comics
Gain familiarity in the use of comic software tools and create a collaborative comic.


Session 3: Using News and Current Events in the Classroom
Use the 5 Questions of Media Literacy to have a conversation about the news
Identify the benefits and challenges of using current events in the classroom.
Explore web sources to conduct effective and reliable/credible web searches, including identifying web authors.
Explore visual choices made in photography to discuss how meaning-making is an active process between audience and author.


Session 4: Mini Lessons & Long-term Projects
Reflect on and revise a mini-lesson based on a media literacy framework.
Create a Wikispaces page with functioning links and embedded media.
Understand the broad goals of taking responsibility for creating, reflecting on, and assessing the long-term lesson.
Appreciate the value of public, digital, and collaborative lesson planning and shared reflection.


Session 5: Media Arts and Popular Culture in the Classroom
Define popular culture and analyze a popular song for comprehension and abstraction.
Connect media literacy concepts to arts and media activities in other media literacy programs.
Use screen capture software (Jing) to create a short screencast based on an appropriate video.


Session 6: Program Review and Next Steps